History of School Shootings in the United States: 2012
History of School Shootings in the United States: 2012
On January 10, 2012
in Houston, Texas an 18-year-old student opened fire with a handgun at North Forest High School, wounding another student. The shooter said that three students had been bullying him and he shot in self-defense. He hit a 16-year-old bystander in the leg. The suspect was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
On February 23, 2012
in Bremerton, Washington at Armin Jahr Elementary School a 9-year-old boy accidentally fired a gun in class after he slammed his backpack on a desk, causing a misfire. The gunshot hit 8-year-old Amina Kocer-Bowman in the abdomen, leading to an 8 week hospital stay as she recovered. The 9 year old boy said he took the gun because he planned to run away from his uncle's house, where he lived, and he needed to bring a gun with him for protection.
The boy's mother, Jamie Lee Chaffin, a felon, eventually pled guilty to weapons charges and was sentenced to 14 months in prison. The boy made a plea agreement with Kitsap County prosecutors, taking responsibility for bringing the handgun school to and was sentenced to a year of court-supervised probation.
On February 27, 2012
in Chardon, Ohio at the Chardon High School, a 17-year-old named Thomas "T. J." Lane, took a semi-automatic handgun and a knife to Chardon High School, where he fired ten shots at a group of students sitting in the cafeteria. He killed three boys and wounded three other students. One 16-year-old died immediately, two others died the following day. Lane was arrested early the next morning while standing near his car. He was charged as an adult with murder, attempted murder, and firearms offenses. In March 2013, he was convicted and sentenced to three life sentences without the possibility of parole.
On March 6, 2012
in Jacksonville, Florida, Shane Schumerth, a fired teacher at Episcopal High School, shot Headmistress Dale Regan before killing himself.
On April 2, 2012
in Oakland, California at Oikos University, a Christian college, a 43-year-old named One L. Goh shot dead seven students with a handgun and wounded three others. He fled, stealing a victim's car in the process, and was arrested close by a few hours later for seven counts of murder.
The shooting happened at approximately 10:30 a.m., when Goh opened fire with a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun. He had four fully loaded 10-round magazines with him on the university's campus, located near the Oakland International Airport at the Airport Business park. Goh stood up in a nursing class while the class was in session, ordered his classmates to line up against the wall, and shot at them. The shooter reportedly said "Get in line ... I'm going to kill you all!" before opening fire, according to a witness.
Six students and a professor were killed, and three others injured (six of seven fatalities were women). The attacker continued to fire as he fled the campus in a car stolen from one of his victims. He surrendered to authorities at a Safeway supermarket in the nearby South Shore area of Alameda, about five miles away from the scene of the shooting, a few hours later.
One L. Goh also known as One Goh Ko or One Ko Goh, a 43-year-old former student at Oikos University, was identified as the shooter. A native of South Korea, he was living in Oakland at the time of the shooting. He moved to the United States following after his parents and two older brothers at a young age, and later became naturalized as a U.S. citizen. In February 2002, he legally changed his name to One Goh because he thought that his birth name, Su Nam Ko, sounded "like a girl's name."
Goh later moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. His mother Oak-Chul Kim also lived in Oakland. On March 8, 2011, his brother Su-Wan was killed in an automobile accident in Virginia while on assignment. Later that year, his mother returned to Seoul, South Korea, where she died as well. While a student at Oikos University, Goh had disciplinary problems.
Howard Jordan, the chief of the Oakland Police Department, said that Goh was angry at the administration after being expelled from the university, as well as having his request for a prorated tuition fee reversal on his $6,000 payment denied by Ellen Cervellon, one of the school's administrators. School officials later said he had not been expelled.
Jordan said Goh went to Oikos with "the intent of locating [a specific] administrator", but upon learning she was not there, opened fire at random people. Jordan said Goh "was also upset that students in the past, when he attended the school, mistreated him, disrespected him, and things of that nature."
Seven people were killed: Tshering Rinzing Bhutia, 38, Doris Chibuko, 40, Sonam Choedon, 33, Grace Eunhae Kim, 23, Katleen Ping, 24, Judith Seymour, 53, Lydia Sim, 21.
Goh was arraigned before Judge Sandra Bean of the Alameda County Superior Court on April 4 and charged with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. In interviews, Goh apologized for the shooting, stating that he did not remember many parts of the day in question and that it was difficult for him to speak about it. He was also hospitalized, and began refusing to eat; three weeks after his arrest, county sheriffs reportedly considered obtaining a court order to have him fed by force through a feeding tube. Goh later resumed eating, though he had lost 20 pounds. On April 30, he appeared before Judge Bean again and entered a not guilty plea through his public defender David Klaus.
Klaus argued that Goh was not mentally competent to stand trial, and Panetta ordered the hearing be adjourned until November 16 so that a competency evaluation could be completed. Goh used a Korean interpreter during the hearing, and had a brief outburst when Klaus began speaking on the subject of Goh's mental competence.
The court appointed two psychiatrists to evaluate Goh. According to Klaus' statements, the report from the first psychiatrist concluded that Goh had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia for up to fifteen years, and lacked the ability to cooperate with his public defender due to his struggle to comprehend the criminal justice system. The second psychiatrist's report also concluded that Goh had had paranoid schizophrenia. Goh reportedly refused medication while in jail.
Panetta ruled that Goh was unfit to stand trial, and ordered that he be confined to a mental institution, with further competency reviews to be held every ninety days.
Goh pled no contest in the shooting, and on July 14, 2017, was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences plus 271 years in prison, without any possibility of parole. In March 2019 Goh died in prison. The Sacramento County Coroner’s office has not released the cause of death.
On August 16, 2012
in Memphis, Tennessee two Hamilton High School students were wounded in the parking lot of the school. The attack was believed to be gang-related.
On August 27, 2012
in Perry Hall, Maryland 15-year-old Robert Gladden, fired two shots with a shotgun inside the cafeteria at Perry Hall School. He hit a 17-year-old senior in the lower back, causing critical wounds. Gladden was subdued by two school faculty members, and arrested. In February 2013, he was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison on attempted murder charges.
On September 7, 2012
in Normal, Illinois a 14-year-old student fired a gun multiple times at a classroom ceiling in Normal Community High School, and was tackled by a teacher. Nobody was injured and the student was arrested and charged with sixteen felonies.
On October 19, 2012
in Chicago, Illinois 18-year-old Banner Academy South student, Terrance Wright, was killed during an attempted robbery. Wright was approached by five would-be robbers as he left the school about 3:40 p.m.. He was shot in the chest as he fought back when one assailant was going through his pockets. Wright had been picked on at his previous high school because he was gay, which led him to transfer to Banner.
On October 31, 2012
in Los Angeles, California at a Halloween party on the University of Southern California campus in the Grand Hall, an argument escalated until 20-year-old Brandon Spencer used a handgun to shoot a rival gang member named Geno Hall seven times, wounding him. Spencer wounded three other people, as well, though none were students at USC. Spencer was arrested minutes after the shooting.
In April of 2014, Spencer was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to forty years to life in prison.
On December 14, 2012
in Newtown, Connecticut at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, a 20-year-old named Adam Lanza killed twenty-six people and himself.
Due to length, the Sandy Hook shooting will be discussed in a seperate post to follow in a few days, including a detailed breakdown of the central figures in the spread of conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which is it’s own interesting substory.